Updated COVID-19 shots are now available from pharmacies and health care providers. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke with Northern Arizona University epidemiologist Paul Keim about why the vaccine needed a revision and how it helps protect people from severe cases of the virus.
So they’ve rolled out new versions of the COVID shot for this upcoming winter. Why is there a need for that? Why do they have to keep updating the vaccine?
So the virus always has been mutating. That’s what happens, is mutations happen. But what really drives evolution in this situation is selection, and that selection is our immune system, the immune system of people around the world… And it’s a continual race. In evolution that’s always the case between predator and prey, or pathogen and host. We continually have to adapt that vaccine to take into account the viruses that escape the previous vaccine or the previous immunity. It’s very similar we’ve been dealing with for decades with the influenza vaccines.
And that brings up a question I hear a lot which is: is it okay to go get the COVID shot and the flu shot at the same time?
Absolutely. In fact, public health officials and the CDC are recommending that you get them both at the same time. But just a little asterisk to that: the reason they’re recommending that, is because they want to be sure to cover as many people as possible. If you just get one, they’re not sure you’re going to come back for the second one. So, there’s nothing at all wrong with waiting to get your second one.
And now hopefully we know a lot more a lot more about vaccine side effects than we used to. All vaccines come with some side effects. What should people watch out for in the weeks after they get the shots?
So, everybody who’s listening should be conferring with their health care providers. They shouldn’t be getting their healthcare advice from Paul Keim or Melissa Sevigny…. ‘Cause everybody’s different, right? Some people are at high risk of severe disease and other people aren’t. If you’re very young and have never had COVID should you be getting the vaccine? All those things need to be a discussion with your health care provider. But, in general, people react differently to the vaccines. I actually had a very mild reaction to this one, just a sore arm. But my wife, it put her down for 12 to 18 hours. That’s normal. I think if it lasts too long, obviously be consulting with your health care provider.
Almost eighty percent of Arizonans who are eligible to get the vaccine have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, but those numbers are a little lower in northern Arizona counties where we live. Can you talk a little more about why it’s important to get this vaccine if you can?
All of this becomes real important if you have other challenges to your health, these categories that we call co-morbidities. We know if you have co-morbidities, you’re at a higher risk of having severe disease. And the list of these co-morbidities is pages and pages long. They’re things like lung disease, if you are a smoker, if you have diabetes, either type 1 or type 2… Now, age is the one you always hear about. We know that people over the age of 65 account for 80 percent of the mortality from COVID…. Now, that doesn’t mean if you’re under the age of 65, you’ve got a get-home-free card…. The safest thing to do is get vaccinated. Because it’s going to boost your immune system and give you greater protection against severe disease and ending up in the hospital.
Paul Keim, thanks so much for speaking with me.
Thank you, Melissa.
